Techmeme
December 6, 2021, 8:50 PM

Top News

The Markup:
Sources: Life360, a family safety app with 33M users, has sold users' precise location since 2016 and is one of the location data broker industry's top sources  —  The app is a major source of raw location data for a multibillion-dollar industry that buys, packages, and sells people's movements
Jon Porter / The Verge:
WhatsApp now lets users set all one-to-one chats to disappear by default after 24 hours, seven days, or 90 days  —  Its disappearing messages feature is getting an upgrade  —  WhatsApp is adding new functionality to its disappearing messages feature, which lets users set messages in a chat …
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Microsoft seizes 42 domains allegedly used by a Chinese cyber espionage group that targeted organizations in the US and 28 other countries  —  Microsoft said today that its legal team has successfully obtained a court warrant that allowed it to seize 42 domains used by a Chinese cyber-espionage group …
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Lyft CFO Brian Roberts, who joined the company in 2014 and took it public, leaves to become CFO at NFT marketplace OpenSea  —  Lyft's long-time CFO Brian Roberts, who took the company public, announced Monday that he was departing the ride share company that he joined in 2014 to take the same role at NFT marketplace OpenSea.
Ben Smith / New York Times:
A document from TikTok's engineering team in Beijing details the app's addictive algorithm, which pursues DAUs by optimizing for “retention” and “time spent”  —  It's the most successful video app in the world.  Our columnist has obtained an internal company document …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile all have programs that collect additional customer data, like app usage, location, and web history, and they are generally opt-out  —  Verizon says it's to better “understand your interests”  —  The My Verizon app might be collecting information about your browsing history …
Bloomberg:
Investigation: Swiss company Mitto, which offers text message services to companies in 100+ countries, helped governments surveil phones; Mitto denies the claim  —  Mitto AG's network used to track people via mobile phones, former employees say.  —  The co-founder of a company that has been trusted …
Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times:
US investigators traced ransomware payments back to companies in the Moscow skyscraper Federation Tower East, suggesting Russia tolerates ransomware operators  —  Cybersecurity experts tracing money paid by American businesses to Russian ransomware gangs found it led to one of Moscow's most prestigious addresses.
Julian E. Barnes / New York Times:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Facebook Gaming announces a Play with Streamer feature that lets creators invite audience members to join a game, debuting alongside Pac-Man Community's launch  —  Mark Zuckerberg unveiled that Pac-Man Community is debuting on Facebook Gaming as one of the first games where audiences can play together while spectating.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Amazon's extensive supply chain investments, mostly focused on domestic US logistics, make it increasingly attractive to third-party merchants and customers  —  It seems like a Christmas miracle.  From CNBC: … The intended takeaway of this article — which originated as a digital special report …
Financial Times:
Researchers detail Meta's roadblocks, like pre-publication review and restrictive contracts, and how it stifles research that might cast it in a negative light  —  Last March, Orestis Papakyriakopoulos, a researcher at Princeton University, applied to use a special data access tool that allows academics to do research on Facebook.
Mia Sato / The Verge:
YouTube publishes its first Copyright Transparency Report, showing H1 2021 had 2.2M+ videos hit with incorrect copyright claims and 729M total copyright claims  —  Creators have complained about the claims and appeal process  —  Over 2.2 million YouTube videos were hit with copyright claims …
Joseph Williams / Bloomberg:
Call center software provider Genesys raises $580M at a $21B valuation led by Salesforce Ventures  —  - Salesforce Ventures led $580 million round joined by Zoom  — Effort signals booming demand for call center software  —  Call center software provider Genesys Cloud Services Inc. raised $580 million …
Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:
Rep. Devin Nunes, a close Trump ally and former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, says he will resign to become CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group  —  - Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., will resign from Congress to become chief executive officer of former President Donald Trump's fledgling social media entity next month.

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Earlier Picks

Benedict Evans:
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Reuters:
Tim Copeland / The Block: